Dr. Seuss's birthday, March 2, was celebrated worldwide and in the United States, thousands of libraries and schools kicked off their literary programs to coincide with his birthday.
His beloved writing and flavor for capturing imagination in a unique way was no child’s play. In fact, this literary genius used specific formulas for creating rhythm and captivating his readers.
Dr. Seuss's History
Dr. Seuss was born Theodore Geisel in 1904 in Massachusetts. He first used the name Seuss as a writer while at Dartmouth, signing his work simply “Seuss” when contributing to the school’s paper. Seuss was his middle and his mother’s maiden name. What type of doctor was he? Well, a creative one. When asked why he added “Dr.” to his name, Geisel explained it was because his father had always wanted to have a doctor in the family.
Before he was a famous children’s book author, Dr. Seuss was an artist and cartoonist, with work in the Saturday Evening Post and in the advertising department of Standard Oil Company. During World War II, Geisel worked for the U.S. Army, making animated training films.
Dr. Seuss's Career
A reminder to future authors, Theodore Geisel’s first “successful” children’s book was rejected 27 times before being accepted for publication. Throughout the years, Seuss’ unique work and style has been considerably analyzed and scrutinized.
While his methods are explainable, most of his working style was done in secret. Geisel’s use of poetic meter have been used by many other English writers, but Geisel had a knack for making unforgettable music with his words. Dr. Seuss’ anapestic tetrameter was one of his most popular instruments. His trademark meter uses two weak beats of rhyme followed by one strong beat. Dr. Seuss also incorporated amphibrach and trochaic tetrameter (as in One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish).
Seuss could do just about anything with words. When bet by friend Bennett Cerf (publisher and co-founder of Random House) that Seuss couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less, Seuss won the wager by writing Green Eggs and Ham, another best-selling favorite. Seuss used to joke that Cerf never made good on the bet.
Dr. Seuss published more than 60 books (translated into 15 languages), one of which celebrates its 50th birthday this year, "The Happy Birthday Book."
Where to Find More about Dr. Seuss
The Seussville website has lots of information about the beloved Theodore Geisel, Dr. Seuss, and Theo. LeSeig (Geisel backwards). A complete biography as well as a playground, catalog, lots of interesting facts and upcoming Seuss events can be found on the website.
 |
